Florida NOW

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CBS12) — Two state bills aimed at reforming the guardianship system and closing loopholes have been proposed this legislative session. As the session winds down, one of those bills is receiving strong support, while the other stalls.

“I have been fighting for this bill for the last four and a half years,” said Michael McCreight, a former ward of Florida’s guardianship system. Earlier this month, he traveled to Tallahassee to testify in favor of HB 73, a bill that would require judges to first consider a less restrictive option called Supportive Decision Making for people with developmental disabilities, instead of putting them in guardianships.

“This would actually have judges have another resource to look at and let people with disabilities have their rights,” said McCreight.

Back in 2021, the I-Team told Michael’s story. As a teen with a disability on the Treasure Coast, he aged out of the foster care system and was put in a restrictive guardianship, taking away his rights. A guardian placed him in a group home to live, but Michael knew he had to get out. He snuck in a cell phone, hid in a closet and called a lawyer for help. Eventually, he was able to convince a judge that he was not incapacitated and in need of a guardianship, and that Supported Decision Making was a better option.

With Supported Decision Making, Michael relies on a trusted network of adults like his pastor to help him make certain decisions. He lives an independent, and full life. As the first person in Florida to break free from a guardianship using the Supported Decision-Making model, Michael has become an advocate for other Floridians with disabilities, calling for guardianship reform.

State Representative Allison Tant, D-Tallahassee sponsored the bill and first introduced it years ago. This session, it finally had the necessary support to get out of committee and onto the House floor for a vote.

Michael was sitting in the gallery, watching.

“We have Michael McCreight up in the gallery, and this was his brainchild,” the bill’s co-sponsor said, as Michael received a round of applause from lawmakers. The House passed HB 73 without a single vote in opposition: 117 yeas, 0 nays.

It awaits a vote in the Senate, where it has unanimously passed all committees.

“It means so much to me, because it’s going to make a difference in so many people’s lives,” Michael told the I-Team.

While this bill appears to be on the path to becoming law, another bill that would have overhauled the guardianship system has fallen short.

Senator Ileana Garcia, R-Miami and Representative Rita Harris, D-Orlando were the bipartisan sponsors of a bill that would have eliminated indefinite guardianships, requiring a re-evaluation of the ward’s status every three years.

The bill would have also made inventory lists more transparent, giving family members access to the accounting. As the I-Team has highlighted in previous reports, guardians are given the authority to create their own inventory of their ward’s assets, and can keep the document secret. This loophole allows guardians to conceal money and property from the courts, and steal valuables for themselves.

The bipartisan guardianship reform bill would have also established family visitation rights for wards, requiring evidentiary hearings and sometimes jury trials for guardians to cut off access to family members. That’s something Christine Montanti has been pushing for, for years.

“I still can’t call up my mom and reach her, and I never know if I’ll be able to see her when I arrive,” Montanti said of her mother Karilyn, who is in a facility in Boca Raton.

She said she was disappointed, but not surprised that this bill has stalled in the Florida legislature.

“I’m very concerned,” she told the I-Team. “I just feel like we are spinning our wheels here, and we aren’t getting anywhere.”

“It is very frustrating that they’ve known about problems in the system for two decades, and we’ve seen very little progress,” said Kat Duesterhaus, legislative director for Florida NOW, which has been a champion of this bill. Duesterhaus said despite bipartisan support and hundreds of letters sent to lawmakers backing the bill, it failed to get a committee hearing.

Rep. Bill Robinson, R-Bradenton, chairs the House Civil Justice subcommittee, did not put it on the calendar, and did not respond to our request for comment.

The I-Team asked Duesterhaus why she thought the bill languished.

“While everybody agrees that there is an urgent and critical need for these reforms, there were disagreements about the language in the bill,” she said, “notably, from the Florida Bar.”

The Florida Bar represents the lawyers that can stand to profit from court-appointed guardianships. We were not able to reach anyone from the Florida Bar for a comment, but an article on its website lays out several concerns with the legislation.

One issue is the creation of more court proceedings, if jury trials are used to settle matters in guardianship cases. Another concern is the ward’s privacy, if documents like bank statements and tax returns are more readily available to family members.

Duesterhaus said Florida NOW will continue to push for guardianship reform but may tackle it piece by piece in the future, instead of with one, sweeping bill.

“I definitely think it will help if we can narrow down our priorities,” she said. “Lives are literally on the line here.”

Original article and video footage at: https://cw34.com/newsletter-daily/one-guardianship-bill-gets-support-but-system-overhaul-stalls-flordia-news-cbs12-i-team-investigation-february-27-2024